Written on August 1st, 2008 at 02:08 pm by Darren Rowse
How Social Media Helped Me Get Unbanned from a Social Media Site in 1 Hour and 44 Minutes
In my last post I wrote that I’d just discovered that StumbleUpon had banned me.
I’m happy to announce that 1 hour and 44 minutes after posting that - I was unbanned.
How did it happen? I put it down to Social Media. Here’s the story:
- I had a number of people Tweet me 30 or so minutes before I posted my last post telling me that I was banned. I can only presume it happened around that times they all came at once.
- I reacted quickly by first emailing StumbleUpon using their contact form.
- I then posted my last post here at ProBlogger
- This post appeared moments later in my Twitter stream (this happens automatically)
- I plurked a link to the post.
- A few minutes later it was submitted to Digg (something I didn’t even consider doing)
- I received a heap of Twitter responses and the story was re-tweeted by quite a few of my followers
- I received a Direct Message tweet within moments fro a follower who gave me the email address of the community manager at StumbleUpon - I emailed him
- The post on Digg was at 90 Diggs within about half an hour
- Twitter was alive with the story (see this screen grab of Twitscoop which shows the tag cloud of what people were talking about on Twitter).
- Many readers emailed Stumbleupon
- I received an email and a comment on ProBlogger from the community manager at StumbleUpon an hour and a quarter after the post went live. He said that it could be resolved and that he’d like us to blog about the situation both here on ProBlogger and the SU blog. I emailed back that I would be happy to do so.
- ProBlogger was unbanned 1 hour and 44 minutes later.
- A few minutes later a story appeared on Digg about how I had been unbanned from StumbleUpon - linking to my Tweet about it.
- Now that I’m unbanned from SU the post saying that I’m banned is getting heaps of bookmarks…. ironically on StumbleUpon.
Here’s that Tag Cloud from Twitscoop
So what did I learn today?
- ProBlogger readers and Twitter followers are amazing. Between putting me in touch with the right person at SU and all your tweets, plurks and diggs you got this fixed really quick.
- StumbleUpon are responsive - or at least Walter their Community Manager is
- Social Media his powerful - while I knew this I don’t think I really had experienced it working so quickly on something that was personal to me
- When you’ve got a problem it can help to involve your friends, not completely lose it and blog a rant (while I was angry in my post I didn’t completely lose it - I tried to reach out to SU) and lastly - sometimes there is opportunity in when bad stuff happens. The buzz and traffic around this whole story has been quite amazing today. I think tomorrow I’ll get banned by Digg :-)
Thanks to everyone for your support, ideas, feedback and offers to help today. Thanks also to StumbleUpon for responding quickly. I look forward to hearing why all this happened and what we as bloggers can learn about it from your end. I’ll post more about this as Walter gets back to me.
The one thing that I do hope StumbleUpon will learn from and change is their ‘banned’ page. It has the potential to unfairly hurt reputations and tarnish sites that have not deserved that. I’m no lawyer but I suspect it could even border on some kind of defamation.
Tags: Banned, social media, StumbleUpon
79 Responses to “How Social Media Helped Me Get Unbanned from a Social Media Site in 1 Hour and 44 Minutes”
Arnold - Mr.Gadget
August 1st, 2008 2:34 pm
Nice to have you back Darren! :)
Patrick
August 1st, 2008 2:35 pm
Once again, awesome! Dugg this, too. lol
http://digg.com/tech_news/Digg_Social_Media_Got_ProBlogger_Unbanned_From_StumbleUpon
Jess
August 1st, 2008 2:36 pm
I reckon you should get yourself a shirt…
‘I was banned from stumbleupon’
good that your back
jess
Karen Zara
August 1st, 2008 2:38 pm
Congratulations on all Problogger readers/fans. :-)
Being the person who first stumbled that Love-In post containing links to stumblers’ profiles, I felt very disturbed when I found out about the banning. I’m really happy that all has ended well. *sighs in relief*
Fred
August 1st, 2008 2:39 pm
That was amazing Darren.
LiveCrunch
August 1st, 2008 2:43 pm
I am glad that I plurked twittered and blogged my friend. After all , why wouldn’t I , you helped me a lot.
Also want to say thanks in my name to every single plurker, twitter and stumbleuponer that helped Darren get this issue resolved ASAP
Gold & Silver Coins
August 1st, 2008 2:44 pm
Wow! Congratulations Darren. Your readership pull is amazing! I don’t think Digg is ever going to pull this on you after this incident with StumbleUpon.
Shana Albert - TheNanny612
August 1st, 2008 2:50 pm
I’m glad you are back, Darren.
Blake Raab
August 1st, 2008 2:51 pm
“Plurk, Twitter, and Blog” sounds like an upset stomach to me! :) No, really, social media is awesome, and it was interesting to see this unfold. I hope this draws some attention to your blogging and social media in general. BTW, my link on this post is to an HTML page with all of my social media contact info. I put it together myself, so the layout isn’t all that great, but it works. Love-In Round 2, anyone? ;)
Alex the Freelance Twin
August 1st, 2008 2:53 pm
I’m so glad everything worked out, and so quickly. Without sounding too arrogant, you must love us! lol
Scott Fox, Author of Internet Riches
August 1st, 2008 2:56 pm
It was impressive to watch it unfold on Twitter - almost as impressive as how quickly you wrote a post covering it (even including a custom graphic!).
Pro-blogger indeed…
Neil Creek
August 1st, 2008 2:57 pm
I predict this may become your most stumbled post ever :)
I would be very interested to know why this happened, and what StumbeUpon plan to do to remedy it. As such an influential and connected person, it appears it was relatively easy for the matter to be resolved. However, for almost anyone else also banned by the SU automated system, there would be little hope.
The best thing that could come out of this would be if SU improved their obviously broken auto-ban system, and re-examined anyone else who may have been auto-banned in the past.
Congratulations, and thank you for becoming a voice for SU users, even if it wasn’t deliberately :)
Bamboo Forest
August 1st, 2008 2:58 pm
I’m glad it was speedily resolved.
Keith Dsouza
August 1st, 2008 2:59 pm
That’s great to hear, that’s why people should use social media, because not only does it generate traffic for your blog, it also turns into help people in times of crisis.
rachel b. (threedayblog)
August 1st, 2008 2:59 pm
Thanks to Darren, twitter and, of course, stumbleupon for a very exciting Thursday evening. What a great show…!
Mike Nichols
August 1st, 2008 2:59 pm
Congratulations, Darren!
That’s what community is all about: Helping friends!
Dominique
August 1st, 2008 3:03 pm
Great to hear that you have been unbanned. Social media really works wonders. :)
Louis Liem
August 1st, 2008 3:05 pm
WOW! At the moment only problogger’s society can do that :)
PS: When I clicked the post’s title, there were 9 comments. When this post displays fully, 15 already
Scott McIntyre
August 1st, 2008 3:07 pm
It’s great that the ban has been lifted, Darren.
Social Media is, indeed, an ultra powerful means of communication and mobilizing people into action.
Danielle Vyas
August 1st, 2008 3:11 pm
Twitter is just amazing. Saw the tweet, read, stumbled, wrote a nice letter.
Build a resource like ProBlogger with the skills needed to create a community.
Social Media belongs to Us.
Whatta Blast.
Danielle
Modern Musings
James Duthie
August 1st, 2008 3:23 pm
If there’s ever been a better case study of the power of a social media community, I’d like to see it.
Kari
August 1st, 2008 3:25 pm
What a relief, though we still demand an explanation from SU. Thumbs up!
Dude World Order
August 1st, 2008 3:32 pm
I was just at the site a while ago and I read the story about being banned by SU.
Now, I am sitting here hitting my stumble button and this post pops up!
Well done on getting unbanned so quickly!!
Pavan Kumar
August 1st, 2008 3:35 pm
Wow! Congrats… How fast you can write content and how fast you get responses and bookmarks… the real problogger’s time to relax now…
Pavan
http://www.techpavan.com
ElegantCelebBlogger
August 1st, 2008 3:39 pm
Good job, Darren! I’m happy everything got sorted out. No doubt this gaffe by SU just created more publicity for Problogger. The power of Twitter, indeed! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go Tweet…
Steve
August 1st, 2008 3:44 pm
When you figure out a way to get un-banned from Facebook’s absurd security system and even worse customer service in regards to said bannings, please let me know. It’s run by some kind of automated system. Somehow I got flagged by posting a single event related to a political group I am part of (a very mainstream one at that). Multiple emails to Facebook over several weeks only produced the information that they will not tell me A) what I did wrong in the first place, B) That I should not post any events again for a certain period of time C) That they will not disclose to me the exactly length of that time, D) Further “abuse” before my probation is up will only extend the period for which I am banned from posting events and may lead to my membership being revoked. And finally, the coup de gras, E) They will not inform me when the ban has been revoked.
So basically I can’t post events and I can’t even try to in order to see if I’m still banned or I risk being expelled from Facebook. All for violating a rule they refuse to inform me of.
In my final e-mail exchange with them I simply asked what they are doing to fix such an obviously flawed and broken security system. I received no response.
Mike Goad
August 1st, 2008 3:45 pm
Outstanding! Glad I was able to be a small part of it! Of course, I haven’t heard back from them.
Now what about other, less influential people who have been subjected to stumbleupon banning for no better reasons?
Colin
August 1st, 2008 4:22 pm
Glad to hear the problem’s been corrected. This is definitely one for the social media case files.
Bicycle Touring Pro
August 1st, 2008 4:25 pm
Yes! I want to know what the issue was. And I’d love to see StumbleUpon change their “banned” page. I think you are correct in assuming that their wording could indeed get them into trouble in the future. If it had happened to me, I would certainly have been upset. Glad you got a speedy response.
Satish Talim
August 1st, 2008 5:03 pm
Nice to have you back and also to read that SU responded positively.
Syed Balkhi
August 1st, 2008 5:16 pm
Glad you got unbanned buddy :)
Cindy
August 1st, 2008 5:25 pm
Thank goodness!! I’m so happy to hear of the unbanning. Wow, what a night! I was like if it could happen to you, so well known, it could happen to anyone.
Claudia
August 1st, 2008 5:25 pm
Well then this is the ultimate proof that social networking has a huge amount of power!
L-Jay
August 1st, 2008 5:30 pm
OMG - I go to sleep, wake up and find out that the whole world has gone crazy and then back to normal again!….lol. Social media is so fast.
Rahul Bansal
August 1st, 2008 5:36 pm
I am still wondering WHY something decent like problogger can be banned.
I am really angry on SU… :x
They have so many spammers running freely in their system and when it comes to banning how come they go after problogger. They are insane…
sorry if I sound badmouth but SU deserves a protest from blogger so that this won’t happen to other nice bloggers in future.
karla | looking towards heaven
August 1st, 2008 5:53 pm
it is amazing, isn’t it?
we could all start a revolution!
wait… i think we just did.
blessings,
karla
Gina
August 1st, 2008 5:55 pm
The second time this week Twitter has shown its power. First with the news spreading about the LA earthquake. Now this.
http://celebritytoday.today.com
http://ginasramblings.blogspot.com
Master Investment
August 1st, 2008 7:27 pm
You are professional blogger..
how dare they banned yours?
I solute you Darren.
shawal
August 1st, 2008 7:45 pm
Congrats on your unbanned….
Keith Bloemendaal
August 1st, 2008 8:27 pm
That’s great Darren,
But I look at it this way: What about lesser known people who could get banned, or may have already been banned that don’t have the following that you do. Does Stumble Upon restore those folks? I am not pleased about the fact that they just ban someone like that, and am willing to bet my paycheck, you were restored so quickly because someone caught wind of this story spreading, and the follower on twitter that gave you the email address to get in touch with the proper person at SU. Would I have been taken care of so quickly?
Keith
thefencepost on twitter and plurk
Gene
August 1st, 2008 8:31 pm
it’s nice, but what will happen if you were not Darren?
I meant if some Avg. Joe were banned and blogged+plurked+digg etc.. about it? it will result nothing.
IMHO: you’re well known person and this is enought,
social media is not working for unfamouse ppl.
SpaceAgeSage
August 1st, 2008 10:04 pm
Two thoughts:
Glad you weren’t on vacation and away from your computer so you could act quickly.
I wonder what Seth Godin will say.
Lori
Justin Levy
August 1st, 2008 10:06 pm
Great work Darren! It’s always nice to see the social media/blogging communities come together to help when something goes astray.
-Justin
Luis Sandoval Jr.
August 1st, 2008 10:12 pm
It is no surprise that SU reconsidered their previous banning. Now whether it was a human initiated action or a “bot” action, I think this calls to attention the personal element that SU may want to look into.
The impersonal nature in which Darren was informed that he was “banned” was both humiliating and insulting. For those of us that follows Problogger, no harm, no foul. But for those that have not been around to know Darren through Problogger, does it put doubts in their minds? Perhaps question what he does?
SU needs to reinvent their model of “banning” perhaps put some better measures into place, or change the metrics by which they measure those that deserved to be “banned.”
Kudos to SU for being open enough to welcome a blog about it on both Problogger and the SU blog site. SU seems truly sorry for this incident, and hopefully an incident like this can be avoided in the future for sites that fully utilize SU, not abuse it.
Matt
August 1st, 2008 10:25 pm
Why did you get banned?
Seem’s stumbleupon wanted some free publicity, and boy did they get it, even on their competitiors websites :)
James
August 1st, 2008 10:36 pm
That’s awesome Darren, great job to all the readers for reacting so quickly. Some props to Stumble as well for fixing their mistake too I guess.
Expert Witness Marketer
August 1st, 2008 11:04 pm
Kudos to StumbleUpon for their quick resolution of the problem - that’s the definition of good customer service!
Ed Shaz/ NextInstinct
August 1st, 2008 11:17 pm
Darren,
You run a clean shop. You deserve the public respect.
And kudos to Walter @ SU for stepping in and getting it right,
not doing the corporate wall thing.
NYCWD
August 1st, 2008 11:48 pm
Glad this got ironed out quickly!
Anita
August 2nd, 2008 12:13 am
It seems like you were a victim of your own success, which is what I thought was the point of SU in the first place.
And yes, I do think they should change the wording on their site, and check on automated bans- I could see other really popular articles that get hot fast getting banned for no good reason.
Kudos on handling this professionally and getting it sorted out!
Marko Pyhäjärvi
August 2nd, 2008 12:21 am
It is so great to see you won this game, Darren! I was really surprised as I read about this in the morning, but somehow I knew you would win. May be just because you play fair game.
Mauro BlogCrash
August 2nd, 2008 12:29 am
If i had a website with you as part of the community … i would also ban you Darren!
It could be a great Marketing Strategy for my website :-)
eheheh
Ultimate Blogging Experiment
August 2nd, 2008 1:00 am
it helps when the whole blogging world loves you. We all quickly complained to everyone we know that our superior person has been banned from a site we use to love.
Rian
August 2nd, 2008 1:16 am
While I didn’t post on the original entry about being banned, I was one of those people who sent an email as well. :)
Glad it worked out.
David
August 2nd, 2008 1:44 am
Great news Darren. Why did you get banned in the first place though?
John Hoff - eVentureBiz
August 2nd, 2008 2:26 am
Hi Darren,
How great of a community have you amassed. I could only dream of one day having half of such a valued audience.
I agree completely too with your last paragraph. They need to be careful.
Stephan Miller
August 2nd, 2008 4:05 am
There has been a few sites I have stumbled that were banned. I thought that the community decided at StumbleUpon. I have had an account there for 4 years and I know some other Stumblers with long standing accounts that were also pre-early-adopters. You would think that Stumblers with a good history would be able to chose a page they like and let the community decide as it goes it rounds. I understand spam but you would have to have a massive amount of alter accounts to beat the views of the mass of StumbleUpon users.
Aaron Riddle
August 2nd, 2008 4:25 am
The power of social networking at its best. Great story!
ToeCracker
August 2nd, 2008 4:31 am
Glad you are back and the bets aspect is, someone high up on Stumbleupon had the balls big enough to correct the ‘WRONG’ and make it right.
No doubt those pussies in charge of digg, led by Kevin ‘NO Balls’ Rose . . . would never un-ban you if this happened. All they do is give you a bullshit reply which is scripted.
Kat
August 2nd, 2008 6:50 am
I Dugg both stories and I am pleased to see the situation taken care of so quickly.
Yay for the community you have surrounding you!!!
cheers ~
Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach
August 2nd, 2008 7:19 am
I’m slow - just heard about this, glad you got it sorted out.
Best wishes, Barbara
Andy Merrett
August 2nd, 2008 8:24 am
“2. StumbleUpon are responsive”
Hmm, maybe they shouldn’t have slurred your name and site in the first place. I’ve never been a great fan of SU and this incidence (despite having been resolved) does not encourage me to bother with them any longer. It’s not worth the risk.
Don
August 2nd, 2008 8:37 am
That happened really fast. I’m amazed.
Maybe this is a study in negative publicity. Look at the traffic generated to your site and to stumble upon. I’d have to think that there was no harm done to either.
BTW - I heard about it on Twitter.
Nancy Nally
August 2nd, 2008 11:37 am
Sheesh, go shopping and I miss all the excitement! Darn!
I would really like to hear their explanation of how you ended up banned in the first place though. I don’t think it is sufficient that they just let you back in without explaining what happened.
Terry
August 2nd, 2008 3:38 pm
Thats shows the potential social media has. It can be used positively and can be abused as well. Less than 2 hours was fast.
MJ Klein
August 2nd, 2008 3:41 pm
social media is powerful as long as what needs to get done is virtual and not actually something important. at the moment, Taiwan is being forced to participate at the Olympics as “Chinese Taipei” a fiction required by China at every event. i’d like to see social media fix that issue - or any other important issue for that matter. i’m not convinced of the power of social media. social disobedience, yes. but not social media itself. people just don’t get as upset over real issues as they do about ProBlogger getting banned from StumbleUpon. sad.
blogversary
August 3rd, 2008 5:31 am
Wow, that is pretty exciting stuff. Glad you are back!
Vacation Rentals
August 3rd, 2008 11:33 am
tell em to fix account ravetildon also! :)
WikiPika
August 3rd, 2008 1:55 pm
That’s awesome! Power to the bloggers!
Mitch
August 3rd, 2008 4:20 pm
I’m missing something, though. Why did they ban you in the first place?
ShaharY
August 3rd, 2008 6:36 pm
Unfortunately, that is not the way Digg treats users. If they decide to ban a site - it is for good and without any human touch, they made a decision and that is it!
I am glad to hear that StumbleUpon respond in such cases… and fix their mistakes.
You can read about my case with Digg, they are very robotic comparing to Stumbleupon - http://www.dev102.com/2008/06/27/digg-the-worst-community-driven-site/
Jo
August 3rd, 2008 11:55 pm
OK . . . . why were you banned?
And why so grateful? If someone bans me unfairly, I want some grovelling, a case of wine, you know something to say sorreee!
liam
August 4th, 2008 12:29 am
What did you learn today #5 - You’re more popular than batman in the world of twitter.
abdul
August 4th, 2008 9:10 pm
That was amazing Darren.
Sandra
August 6th, 2008 10:08 am
ok, I’m a bit behind but Wow! What an eye opener!
I’m a rookie in the whole Social Media world. Could someone enlighten me on how and why this whole banning thing works?
Thanks!
David Leggett
August 10th, 2008 10:00 am
I’d say getting Walter’s email was key to dealing with your situation so quickly. I remember when my site was first Stumbled (unexpectedly), and the user to stumble us listed our site as adult material or something of the likes. It took us 2 or 3 months (after filing a misclassification, and emailing them several times about it) to be listed properly.
It must be a hard task dealing with moderating a community like that.
Lisa
August 12th, 2008 5:35 am
SU put a ceiling on the traffic to my blog http://www.beyondmegapixels.com. I contacted them and Walter replied in an email and while he replied and was polite, it was the usual ambiguous, vague corporate response.
Don’t they read what the stumblers write on the reviews? They think me being on SU and stumbling some of our articles influenced the SU response to our articles. I don’t even know most of the people stumbling us. I feel like I’m being punished for existing on StumbleUpon. Or for having content that’s worth stumbling often.
And they probably think that just because we’re new and don’t have millions of readers the way you do, they can just shrug us off. I feel like I’m being pressured into being a sponsor and I don’t like it one bit.
gout
September 4th, 2008 6:27 pm
well…great boss
Querblogger
September 5th, 2008 11:12 pm
Hi there social community, could you please help me out in un-banning my Google Adsense account please?! I’ll check back in two hours! ;)
No, seriously. Although I love to hear that Problogger is back on StumbleUpon, I very much doubt that this is possible for every blogger in that fast way. I think Darren has a lot of influence in the blogosphere (and he has deserved this popularity) and is therefore treated kind of “special” in my opinion. No offense frmo my side, it’s just what I think about it.
See you,
Peter
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